Description:
Several vulnerabilities were reported in Intel CPU. A local user can read arbitrary virtual memory on the target CPU device. Windows Kernel is affected.

A local user can exploit race conditions in CPU data cache processing to obtain potentially sensitive information on the target system. This can be exploited to read arbitrary virtual memory on the target system, including by a local user on a guest operating system of a virtual machine to read arbitrary memory from other guest systems, the host operating system, and the hypervisor.

In certain cases, a local user can run a specially crafted application to exploit several flaws in the CPU speculative branch instruction execution feature and leverage CPU data cache timing behavior to infer information or read information from various CPU caches.

A local user that can trigger an out-of-bounds index error in an application can read data from another process from the CPU virtual memory [CVE-2017-5753]. The eBPF interpreter or the eBPF JIT engine can be used to create vulnerable code.

A local user can run specially crafted code to cause the CPU to speculatively execute an indirect branch to leak memory contents from another process into a CPU cache and then read the contents of the cache [CVE-2017-5715].

A local user can run specially crafted code to cause the CPU to read memory from a CPU cache before an asynchronous permission check occurs [CVE-2017-5754]. AMD CPUs are reportedly not affected.

Impact:
A local user can view arbitrary virtual memory contents on the target CPU device [which can lead to elevated privileges on the target system].

Solution:
Microsoft has issued a fix for CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5753, and CVE-2017-5754 for Windows Kernel.

[Editor's note: On January 26, 2018, Microsoft issued patch KB4078130 for CVE-2017-5715 to disable the original fix (containing an Intel microcode patch) that was causing system instability, data corruption, and data loss on some systems. Intel is working on a revised microcode patch.]

[Editor's note: On February 13, 2018, Microsoft issued additional security updates for the following 32-bit (x86) versions of Windows 10: 4074596 for Windows 10, 4074591 for Windows 10 Version 1511, 4074590 for Windows 10 Version 1607, and 4074592 for Windows 10 Version 1703.]

[Editor's note: On March 1, 2018, Microsoft issued a standalone fix for Windows 10 Version 1709, available via the Microsoft Update Catalog.]

[Editor's note: On April 24, 2018, Microsoft issued a standalone fix for CVE-2017-5715 for Windows 2016 and Windows 10 Version 1709, available via the Microsoft Update Catalog. Microsoft also issued an Intel microcode update (KB4091666) for CVE-2017-5715 for Windows 10.]